The present invention relates to an electrophoresis plate, which is used for separation by electrophoresis in fields such as biochemistry, molecular biology, and clinical practice, for example in DNA sequencing, for analyzing very minute quantities of proteins and amino acids, drugs, and the like, at high speed and with high resolution.
Electrophoresis devices have traditionally been used when analyzing very minute quantities of proteins and amino acids, and the like. There is a capillary electrophoresis device as a representative device, but it was complicated. Compensating for that drawback, an electrophoresis device having channels inside the substrate, aiming for acceleration of analysis and miniaturization of the device, is a so-called micro fluid device.
Prior electrophoresis methods using micro fluid devices are based on channels of cross injector design, having intersecting sample inlet channels in addition to separation channels (See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-131279; Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-131280; Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-310990; and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-166975).
However, with the cross injection method, there is a limit in the samples introduced into the separation channels due to the channel configuration, and it cannot handle diverse samples (for example, samples containing components having great differences of concentration).
Therefore, an electrophoresis plate having only separation channels in which the quantity of injected samples can be controlled by applied voltage and application time is used. That electrophoresis plate has plural separation channels inside the substrate, each of those separation channels consists of one channel, and voltage is applied between the two ends whereby the sample is separated by electrophoresis along the channel. Those separation channels are arranged along the surface of the substrate without intersecting each other, and in a manner so as to be collected from one end toward the other end, and they are made so as to avoid accumulation at the cathode end.
In the case of performing sample injection in the preprocessing process, from an MTP (Micro Type Plate) having 96 holes or 384 holes, which is commonly used as a sample plate, into an MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) electrophoresis plate having a radial channel structure, because the pitch arrangement of the separation channels does not correspond to the pitch of the wells of the sample plate, injection of the samples on a one-by-one basis becomes necessary, and sample injection in a short time may become difficult.
An object of the present invention therefore is to provide an electrophoresis plate with which sample injection can be performed quickly and conveniently even when the number of separation channels is increased.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.